The latest CD release reviewed

CLINT MANSELL
The Fountain Nonesuch *****

Pop Will Eat Itself founder Clint Mansell has carved out an oddly successful scoring career, moving uneasily between the indie art-house films of Darren Aronofsky (Pi and Requiem for a Dream) and Stephen Gaghan (Abandon) and the Hollywood movies Doom and Sahara. He brings to the former a compositional experimentalism the latter desperately needs. For Aronofsky's big-budget The Fountain, Mansell creates a dynamic and ambitious score that combines long melodic lines and sinuous rhythms with driving guitars, brooding strings, and elegiac piano. Standouts are the operatic Death Is the Road to Awe, the shimmering Tree of Life and the haunting The Last Man. Performed with cool intensity by Kronos Quartet and Scottish post-rock outfit Mogwai, The Fountain is bold, dramatic and Mansell's best yet. www.nonesuch.com